The collator, sorter, and similar arts in general involve the feeding of sheets into spaced compartments. It is often desirable to bind the sheets collected in each compartment together into a mult-page document. "Off-line" binding refers to the process of removing the sheets from the compartments before binding. "On-line" binding refers to the process whereby the sheets are bound together while still in the compartments.
An on-line binding system requires that the sheets be jogged or aligned and then secured together while still in their compartments. In the creation of an on-line adhesive binding system, as contemplated by the present invention, specific problems to be overcome include devising a method of delivering an adhesive to the sheet edges, devising a method of achieving penetration of the adhesive in and between such edges, and the formulation of an adhesive which is not only a good binding adhesive but which is also compatible with the adhesive delivery method and capable of achieving the necessary penetration.